That famous teaching of Jesus on the “one thing necessary†was given at Bethany, at the house of Martha and Mary, in the Gospel we hear today. The two sisters, Martha and Mary, are two very different characters, with two very different temperaments. One is active, the other passive. One is busy doing; the other, seemingly not busy, listening. The scene that we stumble upon has a familiar ring to it.
When guests arrive at our house, we like to make busy and to attend to them. So Martha is very familiar to us. In her anger her sister, we recognize ourselves all too often. Dinners do not cook themselves, and laziness deserves to be scolded. But that is not the whole story.
Visitors like to be attended to, not left to sit by themselves in isolated splendor. Guests have come to visit us, not just to taste our food. Mary is doing a very important thing by sitting with her guest. Guests look forward to good conversation and good food, not either/or. That is why Jesus is so gentle with Martha in His response. He has great affection for her, and for her strengths, her practicality. But Mary’s sensitivity is equal to be prized.
“Martha, Martha,†Jesus says, “you worry and fret about so many things.†This statement is true of so much of human life. We live in a busy, overactive, noisy, never-sleeping world. Always on the go, always doing things. If our lives are made up of this constant activity, this ceaseless labor, then we have lost our soul, we have lost our spiritual life. There is one thing necessary if we are to live life well, and that is spiritual attention.